E-Business at Delta Air Lines: Extracting Value from a Multi-Faceted Approach

Delta Air Lines entered e-business with much aplomb when it agreed to providePriceline.com with its excess inventory (seats on planes) in exchange for a 10% equity position.When Priceline stock soared, Delta sold part of its holding for $750 million. Delta managementrecognized that e-business offered many different business opportunities and has identified waysto lower costs (e.g. selling tickets on line), increase revenues (e.g. selling excess inventorythrough Priceline), and experiment with new business concepts (developing MYOBTravel.comfor small and medium-sized businesses). This case stud y describes Delta?s e-business initiatives,noting the organizational structure used to aggressively pursue new opportunities. Of particularnote is the role of the IT transformation that positioned Delta for the opportunities e-businesscreated. Seeking to avert a Y2K crisis, Delta invested $1 billion in its IT infrastructure anddeveloped a publish-and-subscribe environment to support a cross-functional customerorientation.